Of Swords and Parasols

As much as I love this series overall, I really do think it should have been a few volumes shorter. This volume was mostly “what they’ll do next,” and most of it seemed rather unnecessary. Or at least, like it could have all been told in a lot less space.

There was one thing, though, that really bugged me.

( spoilers )

*sigh*

What has happened to my simultaneously angsty and funny Fruits Basket? Why must it all be an angstfest now?

I have to say, though, that this volume has some of the most moving artwork yet, and some excellent use of silent and near-silent storytelling.

( spoilers )

After miss_dianposted on the series the other day, I went and looked at the first few volumes again.  In some ways, the art has come a very, very long ways(and it started good) but I can't help but notice with this volume that some characters are starting to look alike.  Tohru's father, I think, is supposed to look a bit like Kyo, but Momiji in this volume almost looked like a blond Kyo, and when Kagura showed up, I thought she was Kimi at first.  I've also been having to do doubletakes for a bit now with Shigure and Hatori, when Shigure is wearing a suit.

That said, Natsuki Takaya is, flatout, one of the best visual storytellers I've encountered.  I don't really put the emphasis on art that others seems to.  I get (usually) why there is the emphasis, but I'm more about story and characters than art, so when I hear anything along the lines of "I can take a bad story if there's good art" or "I have a hard time getting into a manga/comic if the art isn't my thing" I'm utterly scandalized.  (And then I make myself a hypocrite with things like Bride of the Water God, where the plot is so thin but the art so pretty...but both the art and the plot are amazingly...well...mythic.)  My main concern is that the art competently tells the story, doesn't hurt my eyes, and is easy to follow.  Most artists seem to slap pretty pictures on a page in relative order, and assume you'll follow.  Something about Natsuki Takaya's art, however, literally pulls from one place to the other, so that usually, you'd probably have to actually try to read it in the wrong order.  Even just the word ballons are arranged to pull your eyes in the right direction, so that you can follow the story easily, even when the words aren't in the conventional order.

But, anyway, on to the actual book.

Uhm...this is one of those posts where I ramble around for a while thinking things through at you, and probably come to no conclusion and make sense to no one but myself.

But basically, there's this whole massive character type of characters who are always up to something and have something up their sleeve and 50 times more things going on in their heads than anyone knows about, and are often crazy levels of smart.  Western stuff tends to cast these characters more as villains, but anime and manga often has them as supporting (or lead) characters, running the gamut from evil villain to the hero's best friend.  They also tend to be massively popular in the anime and manga fandom.  For me, liking them is all over the place...there are some I adore, and others I want to strangle.

(Obviously, I'm thinking mostly in the anime/manga fan mindset here.)

I've been thinking a lot recently about that: why I love some of the type, and want to strangle others, and I've noticed that, for me at least, they seem to boil down to three types:  schemers, tricksters, and plotters/planners.


And again, mostly thinking "out loud" and talking to myself in front of everyone.  No idea if all that'll make sense to anyone but me.

I have a confession to make.  Most of the f-list who I browbeat into reading who have started reading FB in the last year or so seem to start out liking Yuki, and then eventually prefer Kyo after a while.  Me?  When I started reading, I straightup disliked Yuki.  Something about him simply rubbed me the wrong way.  After a few volumes, I came to not mind and then passingly like him, but my main use for him was that him being around meant Ayame and Haru would show up more. I was never interested in him until the last handful of volumes, when he finally got his own storyline separate from Tohru's.  While I'm not remotely invested in his relationship with Machi, I find it much better than any romantic relationship he could have had with Tohru, which would have beenexclusively about her making him feel better about himself.  With Machi, he feels better about himself because he's able to help someone.

 

ETA:  Zodiac hugging has been explained.  Megan just has a bad memory.

In my continuing quest to bring you the highest quality(read: most likely to make you spin in circles screaming "CCCCRRAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCKKKKKK!!!") vids set to Toybox's Tarzan and Jane, I bring you...Fruits Basket. Yet somehow, it seem very fitting here...

  So, apparently, it's been a while since I read a "normal" (visually) shojo manga...I was reading this and staring at the sparkles andthe feathers and the sparkly feathers and the giant saucer eyes and going "whaaaaa...?"

But forget that.  This volume was mostly about Akito, one of my most utterly despised manga characters ever, and it was a volume designed to make us start sympathizing with Akito.  It rather has the opposite affect on me.

 Same as the last 2 posts.  Only order is tht Shuri/Sarasa IS number one.

Just for fun.  Was going to be 10, but I had troubles narrowing it down.

This is favorite male characters, not biggest crushes(for example, much as I love Manji, I could never ever crush on him...actually, I don't really crush on a lot of these...most of the ones I do aren't even here...very strange...)

In no order whatsoever, aside from the fact that Magatsu IS number one and Shuri is number 2(manga/anime characters period, actually).  Pics are just a quick google search and not really the best in many cases.

 

25 x Basara
15 x Fruits Basket/Furuba

Teasers: